


Second Best Place

by Earthiana



Series: Watch out, Everybody, I'm blind Matt Murdock! [3]
Category: Daredevil (Comics), Daredevil (TV), Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Aunt May can never know, Big Brother Matt, Blind Character, Blindness, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Hurt Peter Parker, Kid Peter Parker, Matt Murdock Angst, Matt Murdock Needs a Hug, Matt is a little shit but we love him, Peter Parker Acts Like a Spider, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Matt, Spidey-sense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 16:34:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11695590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Earthiana/pseuds/Earthiana
Summary: Spider-Man finds his way to Daredevil's apartment after a robbery goes wrong. Matt is concerned when Peter seems to be afraid of something.ORMatt is a lovable big brother who relates to his hyper-sensitive spider buddy.





	Second Best Place

Peter rolls over on the rooftop, cradling his head in his hands as paranoia sweeps his body in short bursts. He hadn’t expected the thief to have friends but, by the time he realized, Peter’s head was aching mildly. The tingles of his Spidey-sense, however, lingered until he reached his current position, huddled on a rooftop in the Devil’s own Hell’s Kitchen. Surely, Matt can sense him within his territory? 

He shuffles along, growing more anxious with each tremor that courses through his head and spikes to each extremity.

Peter wants to go home, really, but he’s off his game.

So he goes to the second best place.

  


Peter Parker might be a teenager but Daredevil respects him more than most superheroes, evident from their frequent team-ups. Which is why Matt recognizes Spider-Man’s heartbeat as it crawls across the skyline.

The man in question leaves the roof access door to his apartment wide open, an invitation for Peter. Matt waits almost half an hour but the spider eventually scuttles into his home, kicking the door closed as he traverses the ceiling.

Peter’s breathing is labored, he can detect instantly.

Matt uses his cane to poke in just the right spot. A squeal and a thud later, Spider-Man is lying on his couch.

“Hey, Red.” Spider-Man wriggles, turning over so he’s sitting up on the couch.

Matt’s lips quirk up. “Webhead.”

There’s a silence in which Matt scans Peter for injuries, looking him over intently before determining that the boy hasn’t broken anything and isn’t bleeding all over his furniture, thankfully.

“Social call?” Matt questions. Their identities are shared with each other, so Matt has no qualms about Peter seeing him without his suit on. His eyes, however, are a different issue.

Peter doesn’t ask questions as Matt goes for his red glasses.

“Sure?” The boy responds uneasily.

Matt feels something shift and tilts his head, searching for movement. He writes it off as a shrug until it happens again. A shake. A tremor.

“Black eye.” Peter says, drawing his attention away from the trembles. “I can’t go home just yet and I was in the neighborhood. Your neighborhood.”

“Were you?” Matt hums, partially ignoring Peter. “What is that?”

The man gestures to his friend as a whole. Peter twitches again, a slight shift in the air. It feels like a shrug but Matt’s starting to think Peter’s afraid of him.

He’s not even in the suit.

“Peter, are you scared?” Matt asks, softening his voice as he crouches in front of the boy, trying not be be hurt. They're friends, right? He feels to his left for the unit beside his couch. Inside, he finds his overstocked first aid kit (courtesy of his favourite nurse), just in case.

“My,” Peter shakes as Daredevil unsheathes the kit, “Spidey-sense. I hit my head. I-I can’t stop it.”

Matt winces at that, feeling his senses reach out in a moment of empathy.

__

The towering architecture of the apartment building trembles in the sea of interlocking waves, an aerial appendage with a single sensory receiver hunched upon a vibrating floor.

__

The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen tilts his head to the rhythmic thum of street lights burning across the city, hidden within the mesh walls. Footsteps smash violently into humming puddles outside, shaking each surface of the Kitchen with thousands of rhyming heartbeats. The pulsating energy provides Matt with the background noise he needs to scan his city.

__

They're the sounds that illuminate the skyscrapers and the slums, filling Hell’s Kitchen with dark lights.

__

“There’s no danger, Peter.” Matt assures the boy. In the still moment, the thrumming of Peter’s heart reminds him of just how young Spider-Man is.

The lack of reply betrays Peter’s unease before his heart can.

“My name is Matthew Michael Murdock and your name is Peter Benjamin Parker. You’re in my apartment, sitting on my very comfortable couch, most likely trying to ignore the giant, purple sign outside of my window.” Matt tells the boy as he moves onto the couch beside him, trying to assure the younger hero.

“Actually, it’s blue now.” Peter says, trying to ignore another tremble as he aims for light-hearted.

Matt’s lips quirk up but Peter’s breathing hitches at the same time.

“It’s part of t-the package. I can sense danger.” Peter admits, his voice altered by a sudden tightness in his throat. He’s not a kid, he should be able to handle a tingle. Just a tingle. Just a tingle. “It tells me when something bad is about to happen.”

To his surprise, Matt’s arm moves to Peter’s shoulders. Peter blushes, remembering his little incident with Mr Stark, and waits for Matt to do something, like help him stand up. But Matt doesn’t move and Peter finds himself being hugged by Daredevil.

“My dad was shot when I was a kid.” He tells Peter. “When I hear guns, sometimes…”

Matt trails off but continues the side-hug. He can feel Peter’s scared heartbeat through the contact and it makes any idea of pulling away from the kid completely vanish.

Peter reminds Matt of himself. The stupid heroics, the unrelenting views on justice. Peter is like a younger brother, if only he had one. And the way Matt’s hovering over him, feeling his body struggling with the stress, it makes his heart ache in understanding.

“It feels like the bad stuff.” Peter sums up, lamely. But Matt agrees with him before slipping his arm under the spider’s and helping him to his feet.

“This way.” Matt leaves him to walk unassisted. “You’ll sleep in here.”

Peter’s led into a spacious bedroom with a bed twice as big as his own. His fingers find the silk sheets and the teen considers that he might slide out of the bed during the night.

However, he knows Matt, the hyper sensitive _lawyer_ who actually has to be somewhere in the morning, very well. His couch is comfy, but the leather will surely grate on his nerves if he tries to sleep on it. Literally.

“I can’t take your bed.” Peter frets. “You have a day job.”

“And you have a head injury.” Daredevil points out before turning back to the hall. Walking away, Peter can hear him call out his threat. “Or do I need to call Aunt May?”

Matt cackles when he hears Peter grumbling into his pillows.

  


Peter doesn't comment on the fact that having Daredevil watch over him makes his paranoia wash away, ever so slightly.

  


Matt wakes up on his couch to the familiar _thwap_ of Spider-Man swinging through the streets.

His hand finds his phone, turning it on without much thought.

“New message. From: Webhead.” The device announces. “Red, I added my number to your burner. Thanks for being a friend.”

Matt’s lips quirk up at the corners before he berates himself. Since when did the Devil become so _friendly_?

Guess it’s time to explain to Foggy why he’s late.

  


“Spider-Man? Really, Matt? First the Avengers, now Spider-Man?” Foggy whines. “Who’s next? X-men? Fantastic Four?”

Matt grins into his coffee as his friend continues ranting.

_That’s better._


End file.
